Thursday, September 19, 2013

Last night I dreamt of cuckoo children, no sub plans, and mice crawling all over my legs. I was greeted with no sub plans, stories of a mouse scrambling around the trash can the day before in the classroom, and a hurried briefing from the teacher five minutes before the day started. And yet, when the day began, it was just...normal.
Adorable antsy cutie who wouldn't stop humming stage left. A breakdancing aficionado who bopped around the room. 19 boys and 9 girls. Parents, high school helpers, and a one on one aide for a boy with an IEP. A little pixie who had mouth vomit on the rug, which was shut off with a VERY firm "We do NOT shout out on the rug. EVER." and the eyebrows down look that used to give me an end-of-day headache. A minor pushing issue in line, and lots of "My teacher does it this way...." A very calm end of day, and then time in another Kinder class and a *gasp* sixth grade class! Yes, they were as big as me, but not nearly as intimidating as I thought. I quite enjoyed it.
Best part...I get to go back tomorrow, for more butterfly life-cycle, choice timing, singing, breakdancing, decorating, Kindergarten goodness.

Monday, September 16, 2013

I am no longer a first grade teacher. It's weird that it took me so long to post this, maybe I was hoping that at this time this year I would magically be a first grade teacher again, and sharing silly quotes of new Georges in my class, but to no avail. To be completely honest, I am unemployed. For two days more. The process of trying to find a teaching job has been illuminating, and, at times, discouraging. BUT I am excited to report I will be begin substitute teaching the day after tomorrow (hopefully!) and continue the full time job of looking for a full time job.
Job searching is a silly job. It is a game of making yourself marketable to whatever position you're applying. This is obvious, of course, but I didn't anticipate changing my resume 10+ times for each different job domain, or sending carefully edited picstiches of myself drinking craft beer for a bartending position. (Yes, I was probably dreaming for that one.) The Master's in Education looks pretty shiny on teaching resumes, but administrative assistant ones? There's a gaping hole under the "related experience" section of my resume. Sure, I took over the phone in the office...once or twice. I know how to enter student data into an Excel Spreadsheet. I can smile a lot! But the lack of actual experience in an office means...no go. BUT I'm quite excited to sub. My paperwork gets finished processing tomorrow, and I plan to take a first grade class on my first day because that's my comfort zone.
I am married. I went to Spain for 3 weeks. I moved to Davis. Life is exciting. I can't wait to share about my subbing experience in the next week on this blog.